She Is The Sunlight
by Tropical Medlies
Summary: When Imogen was little and her mother was still around, she would read to her daughter every single night without fail. Her favorite stories were the ones about princesses and falling in love. One-shot.


When Imogen was little and her mother was still around - before everything happened, before she _went away_ and Imogen's dad got quiet - she would read to her daughter every single night without fail. Her favorite stories, by far, were the ones about princesses and falling in love. The image of a handsome, dark-haired boy with piercing blue eyes riding a white horse coming to sweep her off her feet stayed in her mind for years to come and whoever he would be became her epitome of her happily ever after.

She doesn't find anyone she likes that quite matches the description until her junior year of high school when she meets Eli Goldsworthy. His only flaw is that he has green eyes, but she can easily work around that. His intensity and creativity and dark side draw her to him instantly, and she can't deny that she spends months obsessed with the boy. She spends so much time fantasizing about being with him, picturing that perfect fairy tale ending and building up her image of him that she misses the biggest thing of all right in front of her, something that has nothing to do with Eli.

She lets Eli use her. She lets him yell at her, lets him pretend that she's Clare, lets him toss her aside until she's useful again. Then she lets him right back into her life when he's sorry with a smile on her face, too used to forgiving people at this point. When they actually get the chance to date, he's not at all what she pictured and he quickly falls off the pedestal she set him on.

Then along comes Fiona Coyne.

Fiona Coyne, with her (naturally curly) straightened brown hair, blue-almost-grey eyes, her smile that makes Imogen's heart do a ridiculous flip in her chest. Fiona, who disappoints her so much at first but tries to make it up to her in every way possible and sincerely means it, unlike so many people before her. Fiona, who is most certainly not a boy with black hair and a white horse - although she might have one somewhere; who knows with the money her family has?

She's not what Imogen expected for her happily ever after.

—

Although they've been dating for several months, Imogen doesn't realize the true extent of her feelings for Fiona until she comes upon a passage in a book that they're reading for their English class that semester and it all clicks into place:_ I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. _It's not the ideal quote, given the context, but something about it sets Imogen's heart pounding and everything slams into place at once and leaves her breathless.

She catches Fiona at her locker in between classes and the older girl glances up, smiling as soon as she sees her. "Hey, Im - "

Imogen cuts her off immediately. "When I was little, my mom would read to me. She would talk about princesses and castles and fairy tales and knights and princes sweeping the princesses off their feet. And I always thought that I was going to get this prince, this guy who was going to be perfect and do everything right and that I was going to just _know_ when it happened, and I was always so set in the idea that he was going to be this black-haired, blue-eyed guy with a white horse and I just - I just realized that he's you."

Fiona's mouth is slightly ajar, her book halfway between her bag and her locker, the people around them still moving as though this conversation isn't happening at all. Imogen's sure she must sound like an idiot right now, but she can't stop herself.

"You're my prince."

Fiona finally seems to regain her motor skills and puts her book in her locker, turning fully to face Imogen, one hand on her hip. Her brow is furrowed, like she's confused. "Should I be offended that I'm the man in this relationship or flattered that I'm perfect, apparently?"

Imogen rolls her eyes and throws her arms around Fiona's neck, breathing in her girlfriend's expensive perfume - something imported from Paris, no doubt. "Just shut up, Fiona, and take it for what it is."

"You are the strangest person, Imogen Moreno."

"You wouldn't change it."

Fiona chuckles and then pulls back just enough to kiss the shell of her ear. "Never."

A beat. "But does this mean you'll refer to me as Your Royal Highness from now on?"


End file.
